Health experts want Texas to eliminate opting out of...

1of12Houston doctors and activists are calling on the Texas Legislature to change the law allowing parents to not vaccinate their children over "reasons of conscience." In this Feb. 6, 2015, file photo, shows a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on a countertop at a pediatrics clinic in Greenbrae, California. Photo: Eric Risberg

3of12Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, left, and Dr. Umair A. Shah, excutive director of Harris County Public Health, right, talk to a group of students after a press conference at Pin Oak Middle School, 4601 Glenmont St., Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019, in Houston. Advocates and public health experts gathered to urge lawmakers to support strong vaccine legislation. A group of 7th and 8th grade journalism students from the school attended the press conference.Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff photographer

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5of12As cases of measles continue to be reported across the U.S. in 2019, here are several facts taken directly from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention website.Photo: Journal Register Co.

6of12Before the measles vaccination program in 1963, about 3 to 4 million people got measles each year in the United States. Of those people, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 4,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles.Photo: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

7of12Every year, unvaccinated travelers (Americans or foreign visitors) get measles while they are in other countries and bring measles into the United States. They can spread measles to other people who are not protected against measles, which sometimes leads to outbreaks. This can occur in communities with unvaccinated people.Photo: Eric Risberg, AP

8of12Symptoms of measles appear about seven to 14 days after infection. Measles begins with high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes.Two or three days after symptoms begin, tiny white spots may appear inside the mouth.
Three to five days after symptoms begin, the rash breaks out.Photo: CDC

9of12There is no specific antiviral therapy for measles. Medical care is supportive and to help relieve symptoms and address complications such as bacterial infections.Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

10of12Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread through coughing and sneezing. Measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. Photo: Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press

11of12The largest outbreak of measles in the U.S. since 2000 was in 2014 when 23 outbreaks resulted in 667 infected cases. Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

Amid a Gulf Coast cluster of measles and multiple flu-caused school closures around the state, Houston public health leaders on Wednesday sounded the alarm about the risk posed by the state's growing numbers of parents opting not to vaccinate their children.

At a news conference, the leaders noted that many of such unvaccinated children cluster in the same geographic areas where the state is seeing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. The numbers have grown to the tens of thousands since the non-medical "reasons of conscience" exemption went into effect early in the millennium.

"The Texas Legislature has to have the political courage to admit that they were duped by anti-vaxxers into creating dangerous loopholes in state public vaccine laws," said Allison Winnike, president of the Immunization Partnership, a Houston-based advocacy group. "Reach out to legislators to tell them to take the steps needed to keep our families and our communities protected."

Dr. Peter Hotez, a Houston infectious disease specialist who has waged a campaign against the exemption, called the matter "an epic struggle." He said, "we're defending the fundamental rights of children to be protected against deadly infections through vaccination versus the status quo in which children are now denied access to vaccines because of misinformation and phony slogans like 'medical freedom.'"

The news conference followed a week in which seven cases of measles were confirmed in Texas— three in Harris County, one in Montgomery County, one in Galveston County and two in other parts of the state. A sixth possible local case — a pre-K student at La Porte Elementary — is being investigated, officials announced Tuesday.

In addition, at least nine schools across Texas this month have closed for one or more days due to outbreaks of the flu.

In Texas, children are required to have certain sets of vaccinations before they can be enrolled in public school — including the vaccine for measles. Until 2003, the only exception was a medical condition.

But that year, the Texas Legislature allowed parents to choose not to have their child vaccinated for "reasons of conscience." It does not define what constitutes a "reason of conscience," meaning that any parent, for any reason, can decide not to immunize their children.

Since 2003, the number of Texas schoolchildren not vaccinated because of the exemption has skyrocketed from about 2,300 in 2004 to nearly 57,000 Texas schoolchildren in 2018, according to the latest statistics.

The officials said the recent outbreaks of measles, a highly contagious disease thought to be virtually eliminated in the U.S. until recently, are no coincidence. There was only one confirmed case of measles throughout Texas in each of 2015, 2016 and 2017, then nine in 2018 before this year's seven a less than 1 1/2 months into 2019.

A number of vaccination bills have been filed in the Legislature, though none that would strike down the non-medical exemption and at least one that would further loosen the process.

That bill would require the state health department make the opt-out form available not just on its website but in schools. It also would prohibit the state health department from collecting the number of exemptions filed and not require data be reported to the legislature.

A pro-vaccine bill would require a biennial report on any outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and allow parents to view data about exemption numbers for each school. Current law only makes such information publicly accessible at the district level.

Eliminating the non-medical exemption is considered a non-starter in the current Texas Legislature, but Winnike suggested a groundswell movement could change that.

"The public is starting to demand change," said Winnike. "More and more people are telling us they're sick and tired of their communities getting sick. They don't want to keep paying the price of the Legislature relaxing the law."